It is often useful to embed information within an image such that the information is not noticeable to a person viewing the image. There are practical applications for embedding information within the image. Security is one example. Embedding information representing the name of an employee and his or her social security number within the employee's identification photograph can not only add a level of security to the information but also can correlate the embedded information with the visual data. In many applications, it is also useful to reproduce an image with embedded information onto a printed, tangible medium for viewing, archiving, or transmission to others.
Certain embedding techniques feature the ability to store sizable amounts of information. However, these techniques have several requirements, including that the base image used during the embedding process be known, or at least approximated, for optimal information extraction. Thus these techniques are not “blind.”
Robust and efficient blind decoding of images with embedded information is desirable.